San Diego teachers on Tuesday struck a tentative deal with the city school district to forgo negotiated pay raises in exchange for saving at least 1,481 jobs and keeping class sizes manageable come September.

Representing 7,000 teachers, the San Diego Education Association agreed to extend furloughs for a third and fourth year — once again shortening the school year for 118,000 students and cutting pay for educators.

The preliminary agreement includes a one-time financial retirement incentive in an effort to nudge the most senior teachers off the payroll this year. It also lays the groundwork for shaving 14 more days off the 2012-13 academic year should Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax-hike initiative fail in the November election.

The two-year pact would keep the teachers’ contract with the district intact for an additional year — through June 2014 — preventing the labor agreement from expiring in 2013, projected to be one of San Diego Unified’s worst-ever budget years. Teachers would receive pay raises only if the district receives additional funding from the state.

The 11th-hour deal follows days of closed-door meetings between labor leaders and San Diego Unified School District representatives. Union members are set to vote on the pact next week before it goes before the school board for ratification.

“Educators here deserve the salary restoration they were promised. They need it and they deserve it,” said teachers’ union President Bill Freeman. “We knew we couldn’t get it without putting the district in a negative situation. So once again, teachers are stepping up to the plate.”

The settlement comes days before the Board of Education is scheduled to adopt a final budget for the 2012-13 school year.

In May, the district formally laid off one in five teachers effective June 30 to help offset a projected $122 million deficit in next year’s $1.1 billion operating budget.

Board President John Lee Evans said the deal represents a new spirit of collaboration between the union and district.

“As a psychologist, I’m impressed by the abilities of district and union staff to put aside past differences to get this done,” Evans said.

But at least one trustee is skeptical of the deal because it could allow the school year to be shortened further. “First, do no harm to kids. That should be our number one priority,” Board Vice President Scott Barnett said in a statement. “This proposal once again puts our kids’ education second. This is unacceptable.”

He offered alternatives that include renegotiating health-care contracts and making cuts to administration and transportation services.

The tentative deal would cancel layoffs for all San Diego Unified teachers, and some of the 150 state-funded preschool teachers who were laid off due to state funding cuts. The district is looking for ways to bring back the remaining state-funded preschool teachers not covered under the union agreement.

Since last August, San Diego Unified had called for union concessions in the way of forgoing a series of pay raises, extending furloughs and changing health benefits for employees.

Under its contract with teachers approved in 2010, the district promised employees a 7 percent raise in the 2012-13 school year if they agreed to furloughs over two years (five days annually). But when finances failed to improve, the district sought to cancel the raises to save jobs.

Without concessions, San Diego Unified issued pink slips to teachers, counselors, librarians and others in March before formally authorizing 1,534 layoffs in May.

Late last month, the teachers union brought in financial experts from the California Teachers Association to scrutinize the budget before heading into concessions talks in mid-June.

Sharon Fargason, who has taught in the district for nine years, is relieved her job will be saved if union members approve the deal. She is among 25 of 27 teachers who received layoff notices at Fay Elementary School under the personnel cuts that were based on seniority.

“This is great news and I feel like the agreement is fair for a lot of groups of people,” Fargason said. “This still has to be ratified by the teachers’ union, so a lot of us are still a little worried. We are trying to get the word out.”

Cindy Marten, principal at Central Elementary School, is happy she would not lose more than half of her teachers to layoffs under the agreement.

“This is not just about saving 1,500 jobs, it’s about the preservation of public education in San Diego as we know it,” Marten said. “This is a new union. This idea of labor and management working shoulder to shoulder to improve education is alive and well in San Diego.”

If state funding doesn’t come through to fund teacher raises that are deferred in the tentative union agreement, the salary increases would be back on the table in two years when the contract is up.

In the meantime, thousands of teachers will still see their salaries go up under automatic “step and column” raises — individual pay increases that teachers get with seniority and by earning advanced degrees. Those pay boosts, which stop when teachers reach the top of their pay scale, can amount to more than 3 percent a year.

The tentative union deal would sweeten those automatic pay increases for the most senior teachers — those who have already hit the top of their pay scales — by boosting the final step on the salary schedules by 1 percent. Included as a strategic move, that extra pay — in addition to a $25,000 retirement incentive — could serve as an incentive for teaching veterans to vote in favor of the tentative agreement.

The deal needs support from more than 50 percent of union members, plus school board approval. Union leaders will begin an education campaign this week to make sure teachers understand the deal via phone calls, electronic posts and meetings.